Dirty dummy

[Strawberryblondee]

So I was getting my 5mo out of the car earlier today and he dropped it onto the floor. So anyways, I've come inside and just placed it down on the side as you do, came into the room and my partner unknowingly has given it to him😫.
I've been so anal up to now, sterilising everything and keeping everything as clean as possible and now I'm worried that it could possibly make him poorly..

Chances are he'll be absolutely fine! In a few months he'll be crawling around licking everything he can, try not to worry.

While I’m not advocating poor hygiene, this isn’t going to make him poorly. Keeping an ultra sterile home is counter productive when it comes to the immune system. And in a few months when he’s mobile he’ll be licking the floor / shoes / pram wheels and everything else at floor level

Panic not! There comes a point where parents have to migrate from anal to casual - usually about the time they start crawling round the floor!

I would try and relax a bit. It won't be long until he's on the floor licking everything. Being overly clean isn't helpful long term either.

I completely get it, all the above are correct, your baby will soon be licking all sorts. Mine was sucking on a dirty shoe yesterday. I’m on my second now, first, everything was meticulously sterilised, I think we managed till about seven months. Second, I’m ashamed to say it but she just roams putting things in her mouth not a bother now she is a crawler. We have had no trouble at all and she is a big healthy nine months now! I don’t think you need to worry one bit, I believe it’s really the very young babies that more come into trouble from these things!

I get it, but I don't think you have anything to worry about unless the dummy landed in poo or wee (which you'd have noticed).

My approach to sterility took a nose dive the moment I saw DD 10mo trying to lick the wheel of her pushchair. Who knows if she managed to make contact in the second before I picked her up.

I’ve had 4 kids. So can give the benefit of hindsight and experience. My first would never have had a dummy that had touched something else. My 4th would have been sent down on the floor to pick it up himself. And I would have just picked the cat hairs off it.

I promise you it’s ok.

Same as @Santaslittlemelter, I have 4, with #1 I sterilised the same dummy about 20 times per day, by #4 I stuck it in my mouth to clear the crud off it then gave it back. All will be fine!

"sterilising everything and keeping everything as clean as possible"

Ironically this is what could make him poorly. Young children need exposure to germs to build a good immune system.

In about 2 months time he’ll be chewing and licking anything he gets his hands on - it cannot all (and shouldn’t) be clean, never mind sterile - and that will be perfectly fine and a normal part of being a baby. You will look back it this and chuckle at yourself for spending time worrying about a dummy that briefly touched the ground.

When my DD was at the crawling stage she was at MIL's and merrily exploring. Their Jack Russell terrier arrives and starts doing that bum-scudding thing that dogs do - yuk, another reason why I don't have a dog - and MIL scoops the dog into her arms and says "Oh, poor little Diggy; she's got a suppurating anal gland!" At that point I scooped my dear first-born up from the floor!!! She survived.

With no1 I cleaned,scrubbed and sterilised everything
By the time I got to no6 it was a case ‘of fuck it’
No6 never gets ill,is healthy and happy-she started nursery and never seemed to get ill-her big sister started nursery and caught every bug known to man and the rest
One is 25 now,the other 15 and you’d never know how different I was with them both

Thank you for all of your replies, I certainly feel much better now and had a good chuckle at some of you!😂

DD2 has been crawling since 5mo (6mo now) and her principle crimes are -
Licking the pram wheels
Chewing shoe laces
Sampling floor food
Gumming on the cats tail (he’s a bastard and floofed it around her face a few times to bait her into it and then sat there with perplexed look)
I do try to anticipate and intercept but the poor mite seems to have been teething forever and with the best will in the world, her hands are always jammed in her mouth at this point.

I’m sure your baby will be fine, try not to fret overly!